Coating



Sept. 17, 19 35. N MCCULLOCH ET AL 2,014,947

COATiNG Filed Sept. 20, 1934 INVENTOR.

Z m i Z mfi mam Patented Sept. 17, 1935 COATING Norman E. McCulloch and Oman G. Thayer,

Pawtucket, R. I., assignors to The Bayou Prociassing Co. of R. I. Inc., a corporation of Rhode sland Application September 28; 1934, Serial No. 744,842 11 Claims. (cl. 19-1 This invention relates to a coating and is a continuation in part of our application filed April 6,. 1933, Serial No. 664,763; and has for one of its objects the production of a coating which when applied will have an improved surface appearance imitating suede leather, pile fabric or a like surface.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a coating material which is an improvement with reference to material that is known as flock which consists of dust or finely ground or hammered particles with no material length and where length is discernible the different particles are of irregular lengths.

Another object ,of the invention is the provision of a coating consisting of short fibers of a substantially uniform and definite length, greater than the dust and less than any spinnable length known, which are to be applied on the base surface which will have the appearance of suede leather or the like and be soft to the touch.

Another object of the invention is the provision of short length filaments which will be of such form that they may be readily sifted through a screen for application to a prepared surface with an adhesive surface or coating thereon.

A further object of the invention is to thoroughly separate the cut cotton filaments which tend to stick together prior to applying them as a coating to a surface so that they will readily sift through a screen or be applicable by a spray gun to many different objects and be workable for such desired application.

With these and other objects in view, the ing vention consists of certain novel features of construction, as will be more fully described, and particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawing:

Fig. 1 is a sectional view largely diagrammatic of different parts of the processes for cutting the filaments and separating them one from the other;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view also largely diagrammatic illustrating the application of they filaments cut to definite length to a sheet of material;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a piece of coated material;

Fig. 4 is a sectional view greatly enlarged illustrating the filaments as secured to the material as a coating thereover.

For some time in the trade there'has appeared an imitation suede sheet of material either formed on paper or a fabricated cloth by using a flock or finely ground up particles of some desired materials. This flock is a dust and such particles as have a length are all irregular and in order to improve the appearance and give a pile or suede effect to such sheet material, we have provided filaments cut to a substantial and definite length longer than the dust above spoken of 5 and shorter than any length which may be spun, which are applied by sifting them through a screen upon an adhesive coating of sheet material, and we have found that in the use of certain kinds of filaments such as cotton, that these filaments may 10 stick together and not readily separate or sift through a screen on to the adhesive spread over the material which it is desired to coat, and therefore, we have caused the filaments as cotton to be thoroughly treated and cleaned from all oils or greases or foreign substances so that they may be thoroughly separated and may readily sift through the screen on to the material which it is desired to coat, by which arrangement a pile effect or soft suede coating is provided which, when 20 certain filaments such as cotton or rayon are used, gives an exceedingly soft and desirable feel and improves the appearance of the coated surface. We recognize that definite predetermined lengths have been prepared before for spinning purposes 25 but these are upwards of three quarters of an inch, while the filaments of our prepared coating are each less than any length which may be spun; and the following is a more detailed description of the present embodiment of this invention, illustrating the preferred means by which these advantageous results may be accomplished:

The strands from which the short fibers or filaments are out are in a long length or skein and when cotton is used it is usually in the form of 35 what is known as roving, a strand of a bulky nature with a very slight twist therein, such twist being only sufficient to give it the desired drawing effect so that it will not pull apart as manipulated.

These strands or filaments are placed in a form which will compress them to such an extent as to give them a compact form, as illustrated at It] in Fig. 1. This compact form being such as to ive a resistance to the cutter and cause the fila- 45 ments to be sharply out rather than torn and pulled apart. The filaments, in this condition, are fed by means of a traveling belt I l extending overv a table l2 and about a driven roller I 3, which 5 filaments then proceed through an additional pair of feed rolls l4 and fiuted roll l5 to feed them into the path of a cutter l6 reciprocated by a slide IT to be actuated by a crank and eccentric means It. This cutter is set to reciprocate 55 in time with the feed of the filaments ll so that a definite length of filament will be cut from the end of the strands and dropped into a chute 20. The length of the filament is determined by a setting of the feed of the machine and is ad- Justable at will. The cutter I3 is of a shape to dispose the cutting edge at an angle to the direction of reciprocation so that a shearing cut is provided.

Different lengthed filaments which are cut give different effects both from appearance and from the feel of the coating on the surface. We may use minute lengths of from one-two hundredths of an inch upwardly. The maximum length would in every case be less than the length of a filament which could be spun and without 2 intending to limit in any way the length defined,

1 we may say that best results have so far been obtained by filaments cut of a length from onetwo hundredths of an inch up to one-twenty-fifth (1/25) of an inch. These lengths of fibers could not under any conditions be used for spinning purposes and filaments or fibers which are of a length to be spun would be wholly unsuitable for use as a coating such as we provide.

The filaments designated 2| may stick together by reason of the pressure exerted upon them during the cutting. They are then directed into a beater and blowing device designated generally 22 consisting of a screen 25 spaced inwardly from the casing 24 to provide a channel 25 between the two. Within this screen there are fixed baflles 26 and rotary beaters 21 together with rotary vanes 23 which set up a blowing action to expel the air in the device outwardly through the screen 23. The air is sucked in at the center of the casing 29 together with the filaments 2i which have been cut to a definite length and then directed outwardly where they are beaten by the vanes and deflectors until they are thoroughly separated and then passed through the screen 23 where the air carries them into the channel 25to discharge them through a tube 30 into a chamber 3| which permits the air to pass out through a fine sieve 32 of cloth or the like, and the particles to be deposited in the lower portion 33 where they may be collected from time to time as desired.

The short filaments must be siftable or so separated that they may be used in a spray gun and in such materials as cotton, it is necessary to especially treat the material that this sifting may be best effected. This treatment may occur before the strand is cut or after the short filaments of equal length are formed and consists of a thorough cleaning and bleaching of the material. The material is also dyed a color approximating that which it is desired that the finished coating shall assume or some such near color as the light reflected from the short filaments after the coating has been applied will be somewhat different depending upon the length of the filaments. One method in handling cotton is to first, clean or treat for sifting the cotton in a roving form; secondly, to cut the filaments to a definite predetermined length; thirdly, to beat or separate the filaments; fourthly, to dye or dry the fibers; and fifthly, to again beat or separate the filaments. In using rayon, the same is first dyed and treated in skein form; secondly, cut to'a definite predetermined length; and thirdly, beaten or separated. In the use of wool, it is first scoured and cleansed while in top form; secondly, dyed in top form; thirdly, cut to a definite predetermined length; fourthly, beaten or the filaments thoroughly separated.

In each case these particles are thoroughly separated and are then readily siftable or applicable by a blow gun and are applied to fabric, sheets of paper, walls or other surfaces as a coating. A method of application to a sheet is shown wherein a sheet designated 35 is fed over a traveling belt 36 beneath a hopper 31 of adhesive 33 which trickles upon the sheet and is spread there- 10 over by a. doctor blade 39 to provide an even adhesive coating of any suitable material, after which the sheet passes into a compartment 40 where the particles 33 are agitated in a hopper ll having a sifter 42 by means of a crank l3 l5 and link 44 so that the filaments are dropped down upon the adhesive coating 45 as it is spread over the material to be coated by means of the doctor blade.

Some of these filaments will stick to the sheet 20 as they contact therewith. Some of the filaments, by reason of the haphazard direction in which they'follow, will not stick, and in order that a constant agitation may be kept up we provide beneath the traveling belt 46 a pair of beaters 25 41 upon rotary shafts 4B which strike the bottom of the traveling belt 46 and throw the sheet to be coated upwardly and the loose filaments therefrom so that a cloud of filaments is formed in the compartment 40 where this coating action 00- 30 curs.

The traveling belts are suitably driven by any desired means and the material thus coated passes beneath a suction device which sucks off the loose unattached filaments after which the sheet material is dried to dry the adhesive and then brushed and again any loose filaments are sucked ofi and returned to the hopper 4i having a screen in its bottom where they may again be sifted onto another portion of the material to be coated. 40

The adhesives such as are used may be of a waterproof nature, and in some instances an adhesive of rubber may be applied which will be vulcanized or cured instead of the drying operation above mentioned. In each instance the base 45 sheet will be colored as will be the adhesive and the fibers of a similar color so that a coated material of the desired appearance may be had.

It is found in the manipulation of the filaments in this manner that by reason of the treatment 50 which they have been given, substantially all of the moisture is taken therefrom and in some instances it will be desirable to replace this moisture prior to securing the cut filaments upon the base material or object, such as the sheet mentioned or a wall or the like which they are to coat.

It is also found that a difference in length in the filaments cut would change the shade or color of the material and that fibers cut a small fraction of a millimeter different in length from the same 00 colored strands or roving or dyed in the same bath after being cut will have different appearances when applied to the finished base material to be coated.

The above operations are illustrative of treatment which is necessary particularly in the handling of cotton or like filaments which have not heretofore been able to be used because of the difilculties in sifting. It will be apparent, however, that the use of other fibers of similar nature such as wool, silk, mohair, jute, fiax, ramie, or slit cellulose film may be used as well as rayon which is more easy of manipulation than these other materials mentioned.

The foregoing description is directed solely towards the construction illustrated, but we desire it to be understood that we reserve the privilege of resorting to all the mechanical changs to which the device is susceptible, the invention being defined and limited only by the terms of the appended claims.

We claim:

1. A material for coating surfaces consisting of short fibers or filaments, all of which are of les than a spinnable length and the same predetermined cut length, said filaments being characterized by the capability of said predetermined length producing a definite preconceived surface appearance when applied to the surface to be coated.

2. A material for coating surfaces consisting of short fibers or filaments, all of which are of less than a spinnable length and the same predetermined cut length, said filaments being characterized by the capability of said predetermined length producing a definite preconceived surface appearance and feel when applied to the surface to be coated.

3. A material for coating surfaces consisting of short fibers or filaments, all of which are of approximately the same predetermined length, said length being greater than that of flock dust and less than spinning length, said filaments being characterized by the capability of said predetermined length producing a definite preconceived surface appearance when applied to the surface to be coated.

4. A material for coating surfaces consisting of short filaments all of approximately the same predetermined length, said length being greater than that of flock dust and less than spinnable length.

5. A material for coating surfaces consisting of short fibers or filaments, all of which are of less than a spinnable length and the same predetermined cut length, said filaments being characterized by the capability of said predetermined length producting a definite preconceived surface appearance and feel when applied to the surface to be coated, said filaments being separated and capable of being sifted onto a surface to be coated.

6. A material for coating surfaces consisting oi.

short fibers or filaments, all of which are of less than a spinnable length and the same predetermined cut length, said filaments being charactericed by the capability of said predetermined length 4 producing a definite preconceived surface appear- 5 ance and feel when applied to the surface to be coated, said filaments being cotton fibers and eparated and capable of being sifted onto a surface to be coated.

'l. The method of preparing a coating comprising fibers of substantially uniform length which consists in cutting the fibers to definite length and then beating and blowing all of said fibers through a screen to separate them one from another.

8. The method of preparing a coating comprising fibers of substantially uniform length which consists in cutting the fibers to definite length and then beating and blowing all of said fibers through a screen to separate them one from another, subsequently dyeing the fibers and again beating them to separate the fibers.

9. The method of preparing a coating comprising fibers of substantially uniform length which consists in compressing the fibers to give resistance to a cutter, cutting the fibers to definite length and then beating and blowing all of said fibers through a screen to separate them one from another.

10. The method of preparing a coating comprising cotton fibers of substantially uniform length which consists in dyeing the fibers in a long piece to color, cutting the fibers to definite length and then beating and blowing all of said fibers through a screen to separate them one from another.

11. The method of preparing a coating comprising cotton fibers of substantially uniform length which consists in dyeing the fibers in a long piece of color, compressing the fibers to give 40 resistance to a cutter, cutting the fibers to definite length and then beating and blowing all of said fibers through a screen to separate them one from another.

NORMAN E. MCCULLOCH. 

